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‘Wherever illegal encroachments are found…’: Pushkar Dhami backs bulldozer demolitions
Defending demolitions, Dhami said that bulldozers are not being used ‘forcefully’ against anyone.
Amid mounting criticism of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state governments for demolishing properties of riots accused, party leader and Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Thursday justified such demolitions, saying bulldozers will be used wherever ‘illegal encroachments’ are found.
“We are not using bulldozer against anyone forcefully. Till now, we’ve used bulldozer at three places: Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Haldwani. It is being used against illegal encroachments; wherever such things are found, it will be used,” Dhami said at an event in state capital Dehradun.
The chief minister’s remarks came on a day when the Supreme Court, while hearing petitions against razing of houses and shops in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri, which it stayed a day ago, refused to stay all demolitions across the country. The top court, however, ordered that the status quo will continue in Jahangirpuri, adding that the matter will next be heard in two weeks’ time.
The area witnessed communal clashes on April 16. The BJP-run North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) on Wednesday carried out what it decribed as an ‘anti-encroachment drive’ but was forced to halt the exercise within hours as the apex court ordered a status quo.
Though its action triggered massive outrage, the NDMC described the activity as a ‘routine exercise’.
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BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, under chief minister Yogi Adityanath, was the first state to adopt such a ‘tactic’, brining Adityanath the moniker of ‘bulldozer baba’. Taking cue, other BJP state governments, including in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, which were among several states that witnessed riots earlier this month, ordered demolition of properties of riots accused.
Karnataka, another BJP-ruled state, which, too, saw communal violence last week, is also likely to follow suit.
